The Institute of Criminology at the University of Tübingen and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony e.V. have conducted the first comprehensive study on homicides of women in Germany (“Femicide in Germany”) and recently presented their findings. According to the study, the killing of partners in connection with separation or jealousy is by far the most common form of femicide in Germany. Sexism, the structural discrimination of women, mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse, and a tense socio-economic situation are often contributing factors in the killing of women and girls.
Experts from the fields of criminology, law, sociology and psychology were involved in the study. Their aim was to analyse the number and type of femicides, as well as possible shortcomings in police interventions prior to the killings and in criminal prosecution. They examined all files from 197 cases of attempted or completed killings of women in 2017 in five federal states, including Baden-Württemberg, for which criminal proceedings had been concluded. Contrary to what has been reported in many media outlets, the number of killings of women in Germany has not increased in the past ten years, according to the researchers.
Very common: femicides in intimate relationships
In 108 cases, the killings took place in heterosexual intimate relationships. In a quarter of the cases, the motive for the crime was an actual or feared separation or infidelity on the part of the woman. “In most cases, it was therefore a matter of possessiveness or jealousy on the part of the perpetrators,” according to the authors of the study. The crimes took place in all social classes, including a management consultant and a teacher. However, one or more of the following factors were identified in the majority of couples: low level of education, financial difficulties, mental illness, alcohol or drug addiction.
Dominance and jealousy: systematic violence in relationships
In the vast majority of cases, the homicide was preceded by violence in the relationship. Two-thirds of the men systematically used violence to control their partners and restrict their freedom of development. In two-thirds of cases, there were also indications of sexist attitudes on the part of the perpetrator, which were evident before or independently of the crime, such as the belief that women should not work, or even the complete social isolation of their partners. “Perpetrators and victims usually had a relationship in which the men claimed a dominant or superior position for themselves and demanded that the women behave according to their ideas,” reports Sabine Maier, co-author of the study. “Many wanted to assume the role of “breadwinner” or “head of the family”, while they tended to place their partners’ role in the domestic sphere and wanted to control their activities. In many relationships, however, this division of roles did not work out on closer inspection, for example because the men were not employed,” says Maier.
Foreigners and those with a migrant background overrepresented
The proportion of perpetrators and victims with non-German citizenship was around one third. Foreign perpetrators were responsible for almost half of the cases of partner killings related to separation or jealousy. 67 per cent of German perpetrators had a migrant background. The authors explained this by saying that the risk factors identified for femicide were above average among foreigners in Germany.
Femicide cases described as “honour killings” have received a great deal of media attention. These are actually rare and only represented by three cases in the study. Sexual murders accounted for only seven cases in the study.
Recommendations for prevention and criminal law
Based on the study, the researchers recommend increasing the number of places in women’s shelters, improving care for people with mental illness, and raising awareness among law enforcement agencies and courts about the typical dynamics of gender-based violence. They do not currently consider it appropriate to include a separate offence of “femicide” in the Criminal Code, but rather call for a comprehensive reform of the criminal classification of homicides. In addition, they argue that society as a whole must make efforts to dismantle sexist patterns of thinking and behaviour among men that can encourage violence, thereby enabling true gender equality.
The authors of the study also examined whether better prevention or changes in criminal law could reduce the number of femicides. More targeted education of police officers about the potential for escalation in violent relationships could have a preventive effect. “According to our calculations, the sentencesimposed by the competent regional courts do not indicate that the femicides investigated were punished particularly leniently in the context of a separation or in connection with jealousy,” explains criminologist Florian Rebmann. In this respect, the deterrent effect of increasing penalties is doubtful.
Current victim figures for 2024
One day after the presentation of the Tübingen study, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs presented the Federal Criminal Police Office’s “Federal Situation Report—Gender-specific crimes against women 2024” with current figures for 2024. According to this report, 308 women and girls were killed in Germany in 2024, 132 of them in connection with domestic violence. The police recorded 187,128 female victims of domestic violence, but it must be assumed that there is a high number of unreported cases, as many crimes are not reported due to fear, shame or dependence. This number of unreported cases can only be estimated, but according to various studies, it could be as high as 80 to 90 per cent.
For the detailed press release on the study:
Study “Femicide in Germany” presented | University of Tübingen
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